B J 

1595 




IT ■rrrrrrrrri I'll r i i r I'l ri 

. ! jlJ||j| i |j|)|Ulllw||]U lil g || ll| ll lll]llW^ " — ~ ' ' " ^rr-'-—^ ™— ' — ""li,!!Hliai!fl 

POSSIBL 
YOU 

CLARA EWING ESPEY 





Class. 
Book. 






BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



LEADERS OF GIRLS 

Small 12mo. Net, 75 cents 



THE 
POSSIBLE YOU 



BY 

CLARA EWING ESPEY 






THE ABINGDON PRESS 
NEW YORK CINCINNATI 






Copyright, 1917, by 
CLARA EWING ESPEY 






First Edition Printed September, 1917 
Reprinted April, 1921 



THIS BOOK IS ABOUT 

YOURSELF 

The You That Can Be 
How Thinking Starts 
"Making Connections" 
The Way To Remember 
Facts About Habits 
Using Your Gray Matter 
What Feelings Do 
Steering Yourself 
A Word To The Wise 
New Out Of Old 
Seeing Into Things 
Your Reason For Being 



THE YOU THAT CAN BE 



I. ACORNS AND SWEET PEAS 
II. THREADS AND DESIGNS 
in. BOWLS AND BASKETS 
IV. DWARF OR GIANT 



THE YOU THAT CAN BE 



I. ACORNS AND SWEET PEAS 

An acorn has a tree wrapped inside it; sweet peas are 
vines rolled into little balls, and YOU ! — you are the seed 
that holds the person you are going to be. 

As no two oak trees are exactly alike, and as no two 
sweet pea vines are identical, so the YOU that is to be, 
is a unique person. 

You will be '' different " enough to be " interesting " 
but not ''eccentric,'' ^^peculiar," or "queer," Anybody 
can be " conspicuous " or do " freakish '' things, but 
YOU are to be " unusual." Within you is a self that 
is "exceptional." 

Let it grow. 



n. THREADS AND DESIGNS 

Do you think that the kind of person you are going 
to be " just happens," or have you found that you may 
take the many -colored experiences of each minute and 
weave them according to a wonderful life pattern ? 

Some folks make nothing but hit-and-miss rugs and 
crazy patchwork quilts of their lives. Some let their 
experience threads pile up in a big tangle, and some 
allow them to work into the hard knots of discourage- 
ment instead of sewing seams. 

But YOU are to discover the secret of the pattern, 
thje process, and the joy of the working. 



10 THE YOU THAT CAN BE 



HI. BOWLS AND BASKETS 

The potter puts his clay on his revolving wheel and 
molds a bowl by the pressure of his hands. The basket 
maker moistens her reeds and shapes them by pressure 
and tension as she weaves. 

So YOU may mold and shape your life by choosing 
what influences shall affect it. 

The thoughts you think, the things you see and hear, 
the movies you watch, the books you read, and the 
friends you have will press upon and shape your life, 
but YOU may choose them. If you let yourself be 
misshapen you're to blame. 

It's hard to make things over. 

IV. DWARF OR GIANT 

"Alice," at the bottom of the '' rabbit hole,'' drank 
something and grew smaller, then ate a little cake to 
grow tall again. 

If you drink "no-use," "don't-care," "too-hard- 
work," and "rather-have-a-good-time" thoughts and 
moods, you shrivel up into a dwarf; but when you eat 
the cake of "I'll-try," "I-believe-I-can," "It's-fun-to- 
work," and "I'11-see-this-through," you grow head and 
shoulders above the average. 

Some silly folks keep changing from beverage to cake 
and go up and down like an elevator. Of course 
YOU don't. 



HOW THINKING STARTS 



I. SNAPSHOTS 

II. FOCUSING 

m. MOVIE FILMS 

IV. AMATEUR STANDARDS 



HOW THINKING STARTS 13 



I. SNAPSHOTS 

Did you know that you "take a Kodak with you'' 
wherever you go? Whenever you notice a thing, or 
receive an impression, it registers on your brain Hke a 
snapshot. 

The name of your Kodak is "Attention," and the 
pictures it makes are the mental impressions from 
which thinking starts. By paying attention to a thing 
you press the button of your camera. 

These mental photographs determine what you will 
become, for they go into the album of what you know 
and experience. By referring to them you think and 
compare and remember. 

II. FOCUSING 

Before you take a picture you focus your camera so 
that the light rays from the subject will center on your 
film. The thing you use to focus your mental pictures 
is "Concentration." It centers your interest on the 
thing to which you are paying attention. It makes 
you disregard everything else. 

This is necessary because a mental impression that 
is vague and blurred is as "'no account'' as a picture 
that is out of focus. 

Hunting for something interesting about even a 
stupid thing will help you to concentrate on it, lessons 
for instance. 



14 HOW THINKING STARTS 

III. MOVIE FILMS 

Have you ever thought of the difference between 
a movie film taken along a street and a photograph of 
the same place? You see the same people, houses, and 
vehicles, yet in the movie they are more interesting. 

When you try to concentrate your mind by thinking 
hard about a thing you soon get tired and want to go 
to something else, the way you feel when you look at 
the photograph of the street. But if you pay attention 
to one part of it at a time just as if it came along in a 
movie, you are more interested, know more and can 
remember better afterward. That's how to concen- 
trate. 

Make a movie of what you are thinking about. 

IV. AMATEUR STANDARDS 

If you pick up a bunch of pictures such as most 
people take, you will find them too high, too low, or 
slanting; poses and grouping are poor; faces look 
black because they are against a lighter background; 
the whole effect is gray and flat; or the shadows are 
wrong because the sunlight was too strong. 

A little care and thought might have prevented 
these faults, yet people call the pictures '^good." 

They are as commonplace and inferior as the think- 
ing your mind will do unless you train it not to wander 
and not to register impressions regardless of their 

value. PAY ATTENTION AND CONCENTRATE. 



MAKING CONNECTIONS 



I. THE SWITCHBOARD 

II. LIMITEDS AND LOCALS 

m. "NUMBER, PLEASE" 

IV. WIRELESS 



MAKING CONNECTIONS 17 

I. THE SWITCHBOARD 

If you ever watched "Central'' at her switchboard, 
you saw her pick up a plug and insert it in a hole to 
make the connection asked for. 

You can discover your mental switchboard and see 
now you connect with a whole party line if you think 
backward from a thing to what made you think of it 
and to what made you think of that. 

It is a lucky thing for you that your mind "asso- 
ciates'' things this way so you'll know one thing isn't 
several. Otherwise, if you looked into a mirror you'd 
see hair, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, cheeks, lips, 
mouth, chin, and ears — all separate — without knowing 
you saw your own face. 

II. LIMITEDS AND LOCALS 

You like a limited car or train because it gets you 
there in a hurry and doesn't stop at every dooryard. 

That is how your mind saves you time and effort by 
passing all the local points in your impressions about 
things and stopping only at main stations. You don't 
think, "dark," "wet," "shiny," and "something to 
write with"; you think "ink." 

If you cultivate this power of "association" furtherj 
it will make you able to think clearly, to converse in- 
telHgently, and to tell a story acceptably. 

Bores tell all the trifling details, and tire folks the 
way a local does. 



18 MAKING CONNECTIONS 



III. "NUMBER, PLEASE" 

You probably keep a list of the telephone numbers 
that you call most frequently, or perhaps you know 
them by heart. But maybe you do not know that 
there is a list of mental numbers which you call for — 
things that indicate what you most intimately "asso- 
ciate'' with YOURSELF in your mind. 

Your friends are your preferred numbers as to qual- 
ity among people, your books indicate your preferences 
in the thought world, while your way of wearing your 
clothes and your manner of carrying yourself show 
your idea of your own personality. 

YOU are 'phoning from a public booth with the 
door wide open and calling the numbers so loudly 
that anyone may hear and know what you are. 

IV. WIRELESS 

A wireless station stands like a monster spider, appar- 
ently unconnected with anything but the ground, yet the 
invisible fibers of its weaving reach out in all directions 
to other stations that may be a long distance from it. 

That is the way with you and your ideals. They 
often seem such invisible things, so far off and beyond 
attainment, yet you actually connect with them if you 
"associate" yourself with them in your thoughts. 

The effects may not be of the spectacular, fireworks 
kind, but they are as evident as when a wireless station 
is in action. You become different because of them. 



THE WAY TO REMEMBER 



I. A MAGNET 

II. LENSES 

III. HAMMERS 

IV. WIRE BASKETS AND FILING CABINETS 



THE WAY TO REMEMBER 21 



I. A MAGNET 

A magnet and some iron filings are fascinating things 
to experiment with. The bits of iron seem almost alive 
as they rmi toward the magnet, and the cross bar at 
the end holds on like a frightened child to its mother 
when you try to pull it away. 

If you want things to stick to your mind as the 
filings and bar to the magnet, you can draw them into 
your memory by the power of your steady attention 
and real interest. 

Then they take hold with such a strong grasp that 
they are sure to be there when you want to remember 
them later. 

II. LENSES 

When you were ^'little'' you probably had fun play- 
ing with a magnifying glass in the sunlight. By hold- 
ing the lens in just the right position you could make 
a bright spot on a piece of paper and even burn a hole 
there — simply by concentrating the sun's rays. 

You have to focus your attention on things when 
they happen or while you are trying to memorize them 
if you expect to remember accurately. The rays of your 
thoughts must come together to burn the subject in- 
to your mind the way the sun's rays char the paper. 

If part of them go to some other thing your lens does 
not focus and you'll likely forget. 



22 THE WAY TO REMEMBER 



III. HAMMERS 

There is an interesting machine that pounds in logs 
to make a wharf. A heavy weight is hoisted on a der- 
rick and allowed to fall repeatedly upon the end of 
the inverted log until it is driven in far enough. 

When you want to remember a thing, pound it into 
your mind by the hammer of "Repetition/' 

Perhaps in time you can train yourself so thoroughly 
that, like the machine used to nail wooden baskets, you 
can drive the thing home with one strong, steady blow. 
But it is the best plan to keep pounding away. 

IV. WIRE BASKETS AND FILING CABINETS 

Some folks toss things into their minds as if they 
were the wire baskets that office people use on their 
desks to hold correspondence and papers. Nothing is 
classified; nothing sorted; everything is piled in a heap, 
waiting to be attended to. A mind of this sort makes 
a good "forgettery." 

When you are putting things into your mind in the 
hope of remembering them you'll succeed best by mak- 
ing them into a mental filing cabinet. Find their rela- 
tions to other things, to something you already know, 
or connect them with some vivid experience you have 
had. "Associate" them with something. 

That will cross reference them so you can find them 
easily. 



FACTS ABOUT HABITS 



I. 


A RAINBOW 


II. 


ROPES AND FIBERS 


III. 


HIGHWAYS 


IV. 


A CORNER 


V. 


COASTING 


VI. 


CHEMICAL REACTIONS 


Vll. 


A SWITCH 



FACTS ABOUT HABITS 25 



I. A RAINBOW 

Your habit rainbow gives sign of what you are and 
will be. Just as a real rainbow is formed by countless 
particles of water, your habit one is made up of a mul- 
titude of impressions, thoughts and actions. There are 
many blending shades, but these are the prominent 
colors of your rainbow: 

Red — Physical habits; movement, 
action, posture, etc. 

Orange — Emotional habits; feel- 
ings, moods, impulses; self- 
control or self-indulgence. 

Yellow — Habits of mind; associ- 
ation, attention, remember- 
ing, reasoning, etc. 

Green — Habits of will; decision 
or indecision, procrastina- 
tion, promptness. 

Blue — Habitual reactions toward 
people, conditions, work, 
etc- Response or antago- 
nism. 

Violet — Spiritual habits of faith, 
prayer, devotion. 

Is there a pot of gold at the rainbow's end.? Of 
course — your success as a person. 



26 FACTS ABOUT HABITS 



II. ROPES AND FIBERS 

Did you ever unravel a rope? If so, you found that 
it was made up of many separate fibers. When you 
tested one of these you were able to break it easily. It 
snapped almost at once, yet the rope itself was very 
strong. 

Every habit you have is made up of impression, 
thought, or action fibers. Each one of these, at the 
time it is happening, seems as weak and insignificant 
as one of the fibers of rope. But when you repeat 
them over and over they twist into a habit rope whose 
great resisting power is of value to you. 

Be careful about making your ropes. 

m. HIGHWAYS 

Did you ever think how different the world would 
be without streets and roads and highways.? Most of 
them began with somebody's steps. Suppose you had 
to make a new path every time! 

Without Habits, that would be necessary in many 
ways. Imagine having to learn to walk and eat and 
sit and stand, every time you wished to do one of 
these things! 

Learning to play the piano, to use the typewriter, to 
bat a ball, to think straight, to make decisions, etc., 
all depend on the path your habits form. If it's 
wriggly, you'll not be a great success. 



FACTS ABOUT HABITS 27 



IV. A CORNER 

A comer is queer in a way. It is a place that de- 
cides. When you take one of the streets or roads 
that meet there, you soon get far away from where 
you would have been if you'd taken the other one, 
yet the two are together at the corner. 

The Beginning of a Habit is like a corner. It de- 
cides the quality of your new habit; w^hether it will be 
satisfactory or not. That's why you try to make the 
right motions or decisions at first. 

Go slow, or you'll practice mistakes and get far 
away from the road you should take. 

V. COASTING 

Making a Habit is like pulling a sled uphill; long, 
hard, tedious work, with nothing jolly about it. It is 
hard to make and keep your thoughts, movements, 
actions, feelings, and decisions right, at every step of 
the uphill road. You have to drag the weight of your 
unaccustomedness and laziness behind you. 

Using a Habit is like the glorious coast down. At 
first you go a little slowly, then faster and faster. 
The thing gets easier all the time. 

The higher the hill of preparation and training you 
climb, the finer your coasting will be. 



28 FACTS ABOUT HABITS 



VI. CHEMICAL REACTIONS 

When you put soaa into vinegar you are sure 
it will ''fizz/' and when you stir your fudge at the 
wrong time you know it will ''go to sugar'' or form 
crystals. 

If you "get into the habit" of doing or feeling a 
certain way, that habit will act automatically when 
you make the opening motions. That's why you 
"practice'' things. You want to make habits that will 
guarantee results. 

Try smiling the next time you're cross and you'll 
find yourself different before you know it. A smile is 
part of a Habit that reacts into good nature. 

VII. A SWITCH 

Nobody expects anything but a wreck if the rails are 
torn up before an approaching train. Yet people talk 
about "breaking a habit." 

Your life energy is a train that is speeding along the 
habit rails of practice and custom. If you want it to 
go another way, try a different method from tearing 
up the rails. If the habit is undesirable, you can con- 
trol it by building a new and stronger habit of the 
right kind to which your energy train can be sent. 

Build it a switch and a new track that will carry it 
where you wish. If you try to "break it," look out for 
trouble. 



USING YOUR GRAY MATTER 



I. QUESTION MARKS 

II. WHEN GREEN IS BLUE 

III. TAKING THE CLOCK APART 

IV. PICTURE PUZZLES 



USING YOUR GRAY MATTER 31 



I. QUESTION MARKS 

The Spanish language uses more question marks than 
English does. It puts one at the beginning as well as 
at the end of the question. 

When you reason things out you are doing a kind 
of thinking that needs an extra amount of question 
marks, for it isn't any ''shut your eyes and hold out 
your hand" affair. You have to know what things 
really are and not take them at their face value nor 
trust what they seem to be. 

Untrained persons take their "general impressions" 
and draw ridiculous conclusions in consequence. Ask 
yourseK questions, or you'll get fooled too. 

II. WHEN GREEN IS BLUE 

Often at night, or in an uncertain light, when you 
looked at something green you were sure it was blue. 
You failed to get the yellow tone that would have 
modified the color. 

When you ''jump to conclusions" or make up your 
mind beforehand how things are and then try to rea- 
son so AS to prove it, you may be making the same 
mistake. 

Unless you get a different light on the subject or 
see it from a new angle, you may go around insisting 
that the thing is what it is not and making other folks 
wonder whether you are color blind. 



32 USING YOUR GRAY MATTER 



III. TAKING THE CLOCK APART 

If you are going to be intelligent about a thing that 
you do not understand, you have to reason it out. 
You pull it to pieces just as you did the old clock 
when you took it apart to see how it worked. 

You ask yourseK "who/' "what," "why,'' "when," 
"where," "for what," etc., until you begin to see the 
wheels and springs that the thing is made of, how 
they fit together, and what their relations are. 

The tools you need are a good set of questions and 
your ability to "associate" things. Practice helps a 
lot. 

IV. PICTURE PUZZLES 

Sometimes you have a great jumble of facts or a 
mixed-up heap of impressions from which you must 
work out some conclusion. This sort of reasoning is 
like putting a picture puzzle together. 

"Association" helps you here too. You have to 
begin sorting things to see what belong together, 
then you connect them until you see how they 
are going to work out and where the rest of the 
pieces fit. 

But you have to go carefully and be sure to make 
the right connections between things if you solve 
your puzzle. Look out for the pieces you choose; 
they may not fit after all. 



WHAT FEELINGS DO 



I. ARTISTS 

II. A RUNAWAY 

III. BONFIRES 

IV. HOLES IN THE KETTLE 
V. EXPLOSIONS AND AUTOS 

VI. THE TOWERMAN 

VII. MERCURY AND MARS 

VIII. EMPTYING YOUR PURSE 

IX. HERCULES 

X. JASON 

XI. THE TWINS 

Xn. THE QUEST OF THE GRAIL 



WHAT FEELINGS DO 35 



I. ARTISTS 

Feelings are artists. They trace their drawings on 
faces; make pictures in postures; and engrave hues on 
people's bodies, 
tk Ever^ feeling you have leaves its mark somewhere. 
It may draw the alert, vivid self that you were meant 
to be. It may make a caricature in your long face, 
drooping shoulders, and sagging walk, to show how 
weak, burdened, or good-for-nothing you feel. 

A sketch of good nature or one of petulance may be 
drawn on your face already. What kind of an etching 
will you be when you're old — a hard, selfish, mean 
person.?^ or one full of love.^^ 

II. A RUNAWAY 

When an automobile, a locomotive, a Jiorse, or a 
tiger breaks loose and runs wild, people are terrified 
and try to keep out of the smash-up that comes. 

Any person who lets his feelings run unchecked and 
uncontrolled in anger, discouragement, impatience, 
hatred, sympathy, affection, or any other emotion, is 
like such a runaway. In times like these people dread 
and avoid him. 

And one whose splendid life energy is running away 
feels exhausted and smashed when all is over. 

Don't let yours run away. 



36 WHAT FEELINGS DO 



III. BONFIRES 

When you indulge in feelings — love, sympathy, 
ambition, anything — just for the sake of the pleas- 
ure it gives you to feel that way, it is like setting 
fire to a lumber yard for the fun of watching the 
blaze. 

Lumber is valuable and so is the life force that 
goes into feelings. Both are intended to make some- 
thing worth while. The true citizen of the world 
thinks it a wrongful waste to make a bonfire of either 
of them. 

Do you let your feelings burn up, or do you use 
them? 



IV. HOLES IN THE KETTLE 

If you had a perfectly good teakettle you would 
think yourseK silly to punch holes in the bottom and 
then fill it with water and set it on to heat. Every 
drop of water would be gone and the fire would be out 
before you knew it. 

But though you have a chance to use a fine life 
equipment, you don't hesitate to punch holes in it 
by feeling timid, discouraged, hopeless, lazy, or use- 
less. Then your life energy leaks away instead of boil- 
ing up into fine action. 

Stoj> spoiling your kettle. 



WHAT FEELINGS DO 37 



V. EXPLOSIONS AND AUTOS 

An explosion is power — ^power that is in violent and 
destructive action. Yet automobiles are drawn by the 
harnessed power of many little explosions. 

Every feeling you have is life power exploding. If 
you keep it pent up it wrecks your body or injures 
your neighbors as you ''fly into a thousand pieces.'' 

Each feeling you have should propel an auto for you 
by spending its force in definite acts of worth-while 
conduct. When you feel good, kind, sympathetic, am- 
bitious — DO SOMETHING TO LIVE IT. 

A nasty mean feeling generates power enough to 
carry you up "DiflSculty Hill.'' 

VI. THE TOWERMAN 

The towerman gets his warning about an approach- 
ing train in plenty of time to arrange the signals and 
then to lock the switches if they are needed. 

When a feeling starts, you notice it coming before it 
has grown very strong. You get the warning often in 
your body; it is limp, tense, etc. 

elUST THEN your will must set the signal for that 
particular train of life energy to stop or go ahead. If 
the feeling is wrong or wasteful, your will can lock the 
switch that turns your life power to another track. 

It's great fun to make it go another way and do 
something worth while. 



38 WHAT FEELINGS DO 

VII. MERCURY AND MARS 

The old god Mercury was a slippery, treacherous 
fellow, a thief and the father of thieves. So is fear. 
It steals your strength and your courage and cheats 
you out of much that you might have and be. 

When Fear comes your way, summon Mars, the old 
war god, your feeling of aggressiveness and combat. 
He makes you hold up your head and breathe deeply 
with your chest well up and your hands ready to grasp 
a weapon. 

And, strange to say, when your body does this, your 
feelings change and your courage returns. 

Don't let any fear crumple you up and cut your 
breathing short. It will if you let it. 

VIII. EMPTYING YOUR PURSE 

When you have a purse full of money you don't go 
along the street flinging the bills and silver away. 
You would think you were crazy if you did. 

But when somebody "makes you mad'' you don't 
hesitate to fling away your splendid vitality in angry 
feelings, words, and actions so that your body col- 
lapses like an empty purse afterward. 

Anger is power being thrown away, power that you 
can use in a thousand ways. That is why it "feels 
good" sometimes when you are angry. You enjoy the 
sense of power. 

But what a fool you are to fling away your gold ! 



WHAT FEELINGS DO 39 



IX. HERCULES 

"Hercules'* and his ''labors'' — who hasn't heard of 
them? He was such a tremendous worker. He dared 
even what men thought impossible, and he did it. He 
worked with his mmd as well as with his body. 

You have a Hercules — your instinct of constructive- 
ness, A LIKING FOR WORK. You like to make things or 
to accomplish something with mind or body. 

Lazy, are you? Still you can't avoid Hercules! 
You really work harder than ever when you try to get 
out of working. That's why you're worn out when 
you put off work or don't get up on time. 

It's more fun to work than to be idle. 

X. JASON 

Jason sailed and sailed through all sorts of difficul- 
ties in search of the golden fleece; and he got it. 

Curiosity is Jason among your feelings. It sends 
you out exploring among things you don't know, in 
quest of knowledge, information, experience. That's 
how you learn things. 

Aren't you always wanting to know? Why do you 
go and look into a show window where there is a 
crowd? You want to find out. 

Curiosity is the '"first step toward a well-stored 
mind." And when you have secured a mind like that, 
you'll find you have your golden fleece. 



40 WHAT FEELINGS DO 



XI- THE TWINS 

Twins are supposed to be inseparable, no matter if 
they are unlike. Where one is the other wants to be. 
There is a "together'' feeling about them. 

Among your feelings there are such twins — "LOV- 
ING" and "BEING LOVED." They belong together, 
though they don't always succeed in accomplishing it. 

Although "LOVING" is the one that should make 
the advances, most people expect "BEING LOVED" 
to do it and are disappointed. 

"BEING LOVED" is the twin that follows "LOV- 
ING." If you would be loved, you must love first — 
purely, wisely, unselfishly, sanely. 

"BEING LOVED" ^nii come along. 

XIL THE QUEST OF THE GRAIL 

The old-time knights rode on many a quest in search 
of the Holy Grail, the cup used at the Last Supper. 

You yourself go on a similar quest, seeking the Grail 
of religious experience. Your religious feeling is 
one of the strongest and deepest of your nature. 

No matter whether you belong to a church or even 
attend one, you are more or less consciously seeking, 
seeking — seeking for God. 

You may search in the way of pleasure, ambition, 
service, or devotion; your quest is the same though 
you do not know it. It is God you desire. 



STEERING YOURSELF 



I. RAFTS AND POLES 

II. A RUDDER 

III. THE LIGHTHOUSE 

IV. THE CAPTAIN 



STEERING YOURSELF 43 



I. RAFTS AND POLES 

As long as you are in shallow water you can easily 
steer a raft with a pole, but when you get out too deep 
to reach the bottom there is nothing to do but to drift. 

Some people have wills like that. As long as a de- 
cision is easy they have no trouble in making it, but 
give them something hard to decide and they float 
around irresolutely or drift whichever way circum- 
stances or their friends carry them. 

Since an undisciplined Will is as hard to steer with 
as a pole when you are out in deep water, you'd better 
train yours by practice in every decision. 

II. A RUDDER 

If you've ever sat in the stern of a sailboat, or if 
you've been at the pilot wheel of a launch, you know 
what fun it is to see how the boat responds to the 
rudder. 

A single act of your Will can turn you around to 
exactly the opposite direction from the one you've 
been taking. You respond just as the boat does to its 
rudder. 

But before you can have the fun of steering yourself 
skilKully, your Will must have a lot of practice on 
small decisions so as to establish a habit that you can 
rely upon in an emergency. Otherwise you might turn 
the rudder wrong and upset the boat. 



44 STEERING YOURSELF 



III. THE LIGHTHOUSE 

A lighthouse says two things to the sailor: "Don't 
come here, for there is danger/' and ''You can reckon 
your course by me." 

If your WILL is of any account, it says the same two 
things to you. It forbids you to give in to your weak- 
nesses or to do what is wrong or risky; and it insists 
that you must do other things that are right and that 
lead to your progress and success. 

As the light in the tower has to be watched and 
tended, just so you have to look after your will to see 
that it is in good working order. 

IV. THE CAPTAIN 

Your Will is really the captain of your craft. It 
commands and disciplines the crew of your habits, it 
directs the management of the ship of your body, it 
decides on the life route you will take, and it says 
when and where the cargo of your work shall be taken 
on and discharged. 

If your Will is weak or subject to erratic moods, 
your voyage may be perilous or your ship may be 
wrecked. If it becomes intoxicated with a sense of 
its own importance, you may run on the shoals of 
stubbornness and obstinacy. 

But if it is well trained and disciplined, you may 
depend upon it to take you through in safety. 



A WORD TO THE WISE 



I. MALLET AND CHISEL 
II. A GOOD SAMARITAN 
HI. YOUR TOUCHSTONE 
IV. THE CONDUCTOR 



A WORD TO THE WISE 47 



I. MALLET AND CHISEL 

Michael Angelo saw an angel in a rough block of 
marble and worked with mallet and chisel until he 
had revealed it to the world. 

You yourself are at work on a living statue, bringing 
it into being, line by line. The scientific name for 
your chisel is ''Auto Suggestion'' and your hammer, 
of course, is ''Repetition.'' 

"Auto Suggestion" is nothing more than telling your- 
self what to be and to do. You wield it every time you 
think or feel anything about yourself. If you think ill 
of yourself or give way to wrong feelings, your statue 
is marred or you make it a hideous thing. Believing in 
yourself, aspiring and trying, releases the angel. 

II. A GOOD SAMARITAN 

Did you ever have some one who believed in you no 
matter what happened.*^ Somebody who would give 
you a "boost" just when you needed it.^ Then you know 
what is meant by this special kind of good Samaritan. 

It isn't patronizing and it isn't simply lending a 
hand. It is making the other person believe in him- 
self because you believe in him, like him, trust him, 
appeal to him, or challenge his best self. 

You may say it, you may imply it, you may act it, 
or you may insinuate it by a subtle "suggestion." 

It works wonders and makes you a friend worth 
having. 



48 A WORD TO THE WISE 



III. YOUR TOUCHSTONE 

The learned men of olden times kept searching for a 
stone that would turn the baser metals into gold. 

There is a faculty that will turn all kinds of con- 
ditions into the gold of success for you. Some call it 
tact, and some call it influence, but Suggestion is its 
real name. 

By means of it you make people want to do things, 
or think that they like things, or feel in a good humor, 
or give you their friendship. It works wonders. 

When you use it backward by implied or direct 
criticism, disapproval, antagonism, or discouragement, 
there is a dreadful chemical reaction. 

IV. THE CONDUCTOR 

Every car, train, or excursion has its conductor, the 
man who is in charge of it. 

If you have to ''speak" in meetings, are chairman 
of a committee, president of your class, or if you want 
the ''bunch" to do things, your power of "suggestion" 
will help you to be a successful conductor. 

Suggest pictures when you talk; arouse interest by 
making folks "feel" what you say. Make your ideas 
striking, attractive, picturesque. 

"Come on, let's — ," or "Don't you think it would 
be nice.?" will start the "bunch" in the direction that 
you want them to go. Suggestion does it. 



NEW OUT OF OLD 



I. BUILDING BLOCKS AND AIR CASTLES 

11. YOUR FAIRY GODMOTHER 

HI. ALADDIN'S LAMP 

IV. GATHERING HONEY 



NEW OUT OF OLD 51 



I. BUILDING BLOCKS AND AIR CASTLES 

Children use the same blocks in diflFerent ways when 
they are building a castle, a tower, or a garden wall. 

When your Imagination plays it takes the ideas 
that you already have and puts them together in new 
ways, to build air castles, life dreams, and plans. 

By cultivating it you may become ''original" in your 
thoughts and conversation. If you apply it right, you 
may create new designs, processes, or inventions. 

The secret is to combine old material in new or dif- 
ferent or startling ways. 

II. YOUR FAIRY GODMOTHER 

It is easy to see how Imagination is the fairy god- 
mother who will bring you success as an architect, 
designer, artist, decorator, landscape gardener, a mu- 
sician, or a writer. 

But if you want to be a merchant, banker, farmer, 
or mechanic; or if you think of being a teacher, doctor, 
salesman, home-maker, business woman, or almost any- 
thing else, your Imagination can help you just as much. 

You'll need to imagine beforehand how things, and 
conditions, or people, will work together or act; what 
is going to happen, and what you'll need to meet the 
circumstances when they arise. 

Let Imagination put two and two together for you 
and keep you from failure. 



52 NEW OUT OF OLD 



III. ALADDIN'S LAMP 

When Aladdin rubbed his lamp the genie appeared, 
to do his bidding; and when you polish your Imagina- 
tion you arouse a power that will serve you. 

Have it tell you the sort of person you may become, 
and the things you need in order to be what you 
desire. 

Bid it help you to put yourself in another's place 
so that you may understand and sympathize and 
make allowances for faults. 

Make it show you ways to put fun and romance mto 
common, everyday, humdrum tasks. 

It's a mighty good servant, you see. 

IV. GATHERING HONEY 

As the bees go to thousands of flowers gathering 
their honey, so you obtain from countless sources the 
materials for your Imagination to use. 

The wider your experience and the fuller your knowl* 
edge of life, the more resources you have. 

Inquire into diverse occupations, and the processes 
by which things are made. Study people, books, pic- 
tures, and music. Learn about the out-of-doors world. 

From all of these you will obtain and store away a 
multitude of ideas and impressions that your im- 
agination may use in new combinations later on. 



SEEING INTO THINGS 



I. A SEARCHLIGHT 

II. SIGNALS 

ni. YOUR MICROSCOPE 

IV. FIELD GLASSES AND TELESCOPES 



SEEING INTO THINGS 55 



I. A SEARCHLIGHT 

If you have a searchlight in your hand or on your 
auto, you do not mind the dark. You can see ahead 
whether you are on the highway, following an obscure 
trail, or going where there is no path. 

But you may go through life stumbling and groping 
and bumping into situations and people unless you 
learn how to look ahead and find your way in new or 
diflBcult experiences. 

Observation is your searchlight and gives you vision 
for living. It shows you what to avoid and where to 
find the path of gracious conduct, opportunity, and 
success. 

II. SIGNALS 

Have you stood on a bridge to watch the signals 
change along a railroad track .^ As a Scout you may 
have learned to wigwag and read weather signals. If 
you live in the city you know what the traffic police- 
man's whistle means. But have you learned to read 
the other signals in your everyday life.^ 

A signal usually means that something is to happen 
or that it ought to stop. Do you know when to stop 
talking, when to change the subject, when a laugh 
would help, or the thousand other things that are 
being signaled to you all the time by conditions and 
circumstance s.?^ 



56 SEEING INTO THINGS 



III. YOUR MICROSCOPE 

What do you know about yourself; your abilities, 
your faults, your limitations, your tendencies, your 
habits of thought and action; why you succeed or fail 
in the things that you do; what your relations to 
people are; what promise there is of your contributing 
something of value to the world? 

If you aren't beginning to know a little about these 
things it's time that you put yourself under the micro- 
scope of a searching analysis, to find out. You needn't 
do it all the time, but a day off now and then to inves- 
tigate yourself should do no harm and ought to 
illuminate many of your problems and difficulties. 

IV. FIELD GLASSES AND TELESCOPES 

How big is your world? Are you interested only in 
yourself, your friends; your concerns and theirs? Then 
you need both field glasses and a telescope. 

Contact with people who are doing things or who 
have traveled intelligently; worth-while movies, 
thought-provoking books, whether fiction or non- 
fiction — all these will lengthen out your vision and 
increase your knowledge of life. 

If you become interested in what is going on m the 
world by looking into the telescope of community, 
national, and world affairs, you'll be a person worth 
knowing. 



YOUR REASON FOR BEING 



I. MIDAS 

II. KING ARTHUR AND NAPOLEON 

III. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 

IV. SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI 



YOUR REASON FOR BEING 59 



I. MIDAS 

King Midas was a funny old chap to wish that 
everything he touched might turn to gold. It's a 
wonder he didn't see what he was getting into. 

There are many people in this world as simple as ne. 
They exist for money, fine clothes, an exciting time, 
houses full of luxury, a retinue of servants; things, 
things, things FOR THEMSELVES, as if that could 
satisfy them. And they wonder why they aren't happy. 

King Midas finally had enough of it, but most of 
the people who make his mistake haven't sense enough 
to see what is wrong. 

Are you fooling yourself too? 

II. KING ARTHUR AND NAPOLEON 

King Arthur suggests personal development and per- 
fection; Napoleon stands for personal ambition and 
dominion. Together they are the type of a self- 
centered life, the thing that some people are content 
to make their reason for being. 

Arthur's kingdom went to pieces and Napoleon's 
empire was broken. Whoever lives a self -centered life 
will find his kingdom will fail as surely as theirs did. 

Things are to be desired within a reasonable limit, 
but not as the supreme end of being; personal am- 
bition and DEVELOPMENT are right and admirable if 
there is a great purpose beyond them. 

Do you think them enough to live for? 



60 YOUR REASON FOR BEING 



III. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 

Florence Nightingale, who labored so unsparingly for 
the sick and wounded soldiers of the Crimean War, 
was a wonderful example of "doing things for people/' 

This big motive is sometimes spoiled by becoming a 
subtle form of self -gratification, and results in a kind 
of pride and an attitude of patronage toward those 
who are being helped. Sometimes it exhausts a life 
unwisely and needlessly. 

To desire things is a baby's reason for being; to seek 
personal development and expression characterizes a 
child; to do things for others is worthy of a young 
person; but the finest maturity calls for something 
still greater as a reason for being. 

IV. SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI 

Saint Francis of Assisi was like a light in a dark age 
of the world. A thousand legends reflect his Christ- 
like spirit of fellowship; his love of sharing. 

Although he was born in wealth he chose to snare 
the life of the lowly. He was their "brother" because 
he loved both God and them. Discord and strife dis- 
appeared in his loving presence. 

He had learned the supreme reason for being — ^fel- 
lowship with God and man; THE LOVE THAT 
SHARES. 

Have YOU.? 



I ■ ■ I ■ I ■ 

iilllinillfniijRitar^lH!! 

W 



JLPU^ 




022 208 243 2 






